SPECIAL CHAPTER 2: TEMPT LIKE A SLUT

CHANCE LOOKS AT THE mirror and stares at himself. He smiles and smoothens his already perfectly waxed hair before fixing his uniform for the millionth time.

"Hey, new kid! You're not joining a freakin' pageant, what are you still doing here? The line outside is already long!" A man who entered the locker room shouts, startling Chance. The man was actually his new manager, so Chance didn't have the guts to throw him a witty response.

"S-Sorry boss." Chance says instead before wearing his apron and running outside to tend the counter with another coworker of his named Nathan.

"Seriously man, this is only your first day. Don't get on our manager's bad side this early in the game." Nathan says while making the latte that a customer ordered.

"Sorry." Chance says with a bright smile, and Nathan just sighs and continues on with what he was doing.

Chance wanted to start working as soon as he could to help his siblings, so thanks to a friend of his who he met at a club, he got a job as a barista in a café near their new house. Catalina insisted that they apply for a company since all of them were college graduates with a degree of business management (except for Tobias who is still studying it), but Chance doesn't want to come back to the corporate world anymore, and Catalina understood his reason and eventually supported him with his new job.

"I haven't worked this hard in my life!" Chance complains after finishing an order from their last customer.

Nathan chuckles and hands him a cold drink, "Here, it's on me." He says, and Chance stares at the drink before taking it.

"Why so anxious? It's not like a drugged that thing." Nathan jokes, but Chance's reaction hinted him on something, so he immediately shuts his mouth.

Chance was anxious because he experienced getting drugged numerous times now, but he still took the drink and thanked Nathan for it. He didn't want to come out rude.

"Don't you have a television in your house? I know the trial ended a month ago but we were pretty famous." Chance says, assuming that Nathan has seen him before and has already found out about how he was practically r-ped by dozens of people at such a young age.

"Wait, I think I have," Nathan says with a shocked expression, and Chance sighs and looks away from him.

"Disgusting right?" He asks, and the empty café became quiet. But then he suddenly felt something cold in his cheek. He immediately turns his head and saw Nathan laughing while holding a cube of ice.

"What was that for?" Chance asks, wiping his cold cheek with his hand.

Nathan smirks and eats the ice before saying, "I don't have a T.V at home since I still have to pay for my rent while juggling with three other jobs. But whatever you were, I don't think a beautiful soul should be described as 'disgusting,' don't you think?" He asks him, and Chance was taken aback by such words.

"Unless you did something gruesome like murder a baby then I think-" Nathan stops midsentence when he suddenly saw tears falling down from Chance's eyes. Nathan stares at him, and only then did Chance realize that he was already crying.

"Shit, sorry." He says, wiping the tears with his bare hands.

Nathan takes out a handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to Chance before saying, "Stop apologizing. It's not like crying's a sin."

Chance takes the handkerchief and thanks his co-barista. Then he uses it to wipe his tears away.

"You must have had it rough. But don't worry, I'm not going to ask you about-"

Nathan was suddenly interrupted when Chance blurted out, "You wanna have sex?"

"What?" Nathan asks from shock, accidentally crushing the ice inside his mouth.

"I mean...you're acting all nice so I'm assuming you want something in return." Chance casually says, and Nathan stares at him like he just said a joke that he wasn't able to comprehend.

"I'm sorry but I'm confused." Nathan honestly tells him.

"Sex? Never heard of it?" Chance asks, and Nathan's mouth opens wide because of shock and confusion.

"Of course I know what sex is! And it's not like you're not my type or anything, and I'm not saying you're ugly either because you're dead gorgeous. But that's weird now since I'm a guy and I'm low-key telling you I'm gay, and I didn't want to reveal that on your first day here. But asking me if I want to have sex all of a sudden is seriously shocking." At this point, Nathan was just rambling at himself, and this finally made Chance realize something.

His face burns up, and he takes a step away from Nathan.

"I just made things awkward now didn't I?" Chance asks in embarrassment, and Nathan finally stops talking, his face and ears now red as well.

"You kinda did," Nathan answers while scratching the back of his head. The two didn't say anything, but when their eyes met, both of them starts laughing like crazy.

"What the fuck man? You seriously scared me for a second." Nathan says while touching his aching stomach after laughing so hard.

"But that joke was funny though." He says, and Chance just played along and pretended that it was really just a joke so Nathan could forget about it and they could move on. Chance grabs the drink that Nathan gave to him earlier and starts sipping on it to avoid making eye contact with Nathan again.

"Shit. I should seriously remind myself that there are still normal people, and not everyone is disgusting perverts." Chance thought to himself before glancing back at Nathan. He was startled because Nathan was actually staring back at him already.

"W-What?" He asks awkwardly, putting the drink on the counter.

"That wasn't a lie though." He says, making Chance furrow his brow.

Nathan smiles and continues, "You are gorgeous."

Something suddenly explodes inside Chance that he instinctively looks away from Nathan. He grabs the drink again and turns away from him so he could touch his chest that was beating like crazy.

"What the hell was that?" He asks himself as he tries to calm himself down.

"I'll be closing the café tonight so you can go home first," Nathan says, and Chance still doesn't face him and just shows him an 'okay' sign before running to the locker room so he could hide from the fact that there might be a possibility for him to genuinely fall in love.

And this time...

It's not because of a role he was forced to fulfill.